Saying goodbye to friends is never easy. Over the last two weeks the Optic has had to say goodbye to seven part-time employees.

They are people you likely don’t know — people who, up until last month, worked behind the scenes making sure that all of your inserts, Homes & Property, American Profile and circulars, made it into your newspaper.

What could have been CATastrophic may instead have a PURRfect ending for Nembi, an elusive female feline that was due to be reunited with her family Sunday.

On April 2, Teisha Tackett, currently living in North Dakota, was driving from Buckeye, Ariz., with her three children and their pet cat, Nembi. As the family stopped for a break at the rest area near Wagon Mound, the mouser slipped away.

Two hours of calling her and even having a can of tuna handy as bait failed to draw the cat back to the car.

BOSTON — As the lone surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing lay hospitalized under heavy guard, the American Civil Liberties Union and a federal public defender raised concerns about investigators’ plan to question 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev without reading him his Miranda rights.